It's Not Alright to Cry
by DonutThug
Summary: Pain, suffering, abuse. Those three words have been governing Coco's life for years. Coco wishes for his freedom, and wonders what Toriko and the others are doing. But no matter how bad the experiments get, it's not alright to cry. Drabble/Ficlet series.
1. Somewhere Only I Know

Disclaimer: I don't own Toriko or it's characters.

Based off the anime. Also I KNOW THAT IT'S A REALLY SHORT DRABBLE

* * *

Sighing, Coco pressed his back to a cold stone wall, exhaling heavily as he slid to the ground, curling up into a ball. His room—his prison was cold and dank, causing Coco to shiver. He longed for his freedom since the last day they had forced him here.

 _"The more you struggle the more painful this is going to be for everybody!"_

This just wasn't fair. While Coco's siblings were out playing in one of the IGO HQ's vast green spaces, or training to become proper Bishokuya, Coco was locked up and abused by Ichiryuu's team of scientists.

 _"You know what, let's just keep him locked up so we don't have to deal with this ever again."_

 _"Wait…WHAT?"_

Yes, Coco understood why they locked him up. Every time they had to drag him back he fought and struggled. What Coco didn't understand was how Ichiryuu didn't know. Ichiryuu ran the IGO, so how did he not know about how poorly one of his adopted sons was being treated? Why didn't he listen?

 _Please don't let them take me ever again, please!" the sobbing child begged, letting purple tears dot the linoleum floor._

Coco had always asked them why they had to treat him so poorly. Why couldn't they treat him like a human being, and not lock him in an animal cage. Why couldn't they take the time to make the experiments less painful, so the wouldn't have to use the faulty anesthetic.

 _The child screamed, struggling against the gloved hands that held him down. He knew that the anesthetic wouldn't work._

 _This won't hurt a bit…_

Coco didn't understand why those scientists didn't understand that the anesthetic didn't work on him. That there was no realistic way to slip him under. The experiments were long and painful, and living through day after day was grueling.

 _The raven-haired child screamed in fear, just as a pair of gloved hands shove him into the water, and Coco felt his hope sink with him as the lid was closed over the water. He was going to be underwater for a very long time._

Sometimes, Coco hated Ichiryuu for doing this to him. Coco wished that he hadn't let Ichiryuu put all those poisons into him. It caused him pain and grief. Every day as a child Coco found himself crying purple tears. But Coco couldn't cry now. The oldest of the four brothers was being watched, those scientists wanted his tears.

 _The dark-haired child screamed as the gloved hands brought a hand down on him. And again. And again. But he wasn't going to cry. He would prove Toriko that he was stronger than that. He had to be the stronger older brother._

Trying to take his mind off his traumatic childhood and now mid-adolescence, Coco looked down at the green fabric straps around his wrists, and smiled weakly at perhaps the last decent thing Ichiryuu ever did for him.

 _"Will this really help with my poison?" the eldest brother asked Ichiryuu as his adoptive father wrapped green fabric around his elbows, wrists, ankles, and neck. Ichiryuu smiled, "Of course, but you need to try and stay level-headed too."_

 _"Of course, that's easy!"_

Letting his cold brown eyes slide shut, Coco curled up into a ball on the floor, deciding to try and get some rest before the next round of grueling experiments. He curled up into the fetal position, letting the pain sink in, and running his hands along his bruises. Although his future was uncertain, he was certainly of one thing:

It's not alright to cry.

* * *

A/N: Wow, that was short! It was a lot longer on the Wattpad page...

AHH! HOW COULD I DO THAT TO COCO I HAVE ALL THE WORST HEADCANONS!  
(And if you're wondering about the whole underwater thing, pure oxygen is poisonous so I have a headcanon that Coco can breathe underwater)

There may or may not be a second chapter coming out. Depends on how bored I get in the next couple of days.


	2. A Change of Heart

Wow, this one's really short. I'm too lazy to put a disclaimer in so read the first chapter.

These aren't in chronological order BTW, just a series of drabbles and ficlets!

* * *

The raven-haired man tensed at the sight of a familiar person, walking towards him with considerable haste. Hoping that he wouldn't be recognized, Coco pulled his beige cloak closer around him, hoping to keep a low profile just as he was forced to all these years.

 _"Coco, hide!"_

 _"What?"_

 _"Leave, run away, don't let them find you. Toriko is on his way."_

If only the beige cloak masked the faint scent of lingering sorrow and tears. A part of his identity that nobody could ever notice. Nobody, except Toriko.

"Yo, Coco! Long time no see, I decided to stop by to see you—"

 _"Yo Coco! Long time no see! It's been a while 'cuz of those experiments huh? Well, at least we dorm together!"_

Coco immediately felt his unsocial side take over before he could hide it and his trauma, he became cold and aloof before he could slip on a fake smile.

"That's why you can't isn't it? Because you wanted to see _him_ again?"

 _"Toriko, you need to go!"_

 _"What?"_

Toriko froze in his tracks, taken aback by Coco's cold and aloof attitude.

"'Him again?' don't you mean 'me again'? Jeez, why are you being so cold? I'm your brother! What happened after those experiments?" Toriko approached Coco with concern and caution—knowing how dangerous Coco could be—Toriko didn't understand Coco's change in attitude, they were brothers.

"I just wasn't myself anymore."

 _"I'm not myself anymore. I'll wind up hurting you! Leave!"_

Without a second thought, Coco spun around on his heels, and made his was into the forests surrounding Gourmet Fortune. He knew how badly he had hurt Toriko.

 _"No! Brothers don't do that! Brothers don't hurt each other!"_

Coco wondered just what those experiments had really done to him. He had hurt Toriko, he had stormed off into the woods, heck, he didn't even know where he was going.

 _Panicked, Coco knew he needed to turn tail and flee. He spun around on his heels, waving his arm and flicking his wrist. He realized, too late, the shout of panic that would ensue._

 _He had poisoned Toriko._

Knowing how badly he hurt Toriko, Coco felt tears well up in his eyes. But no matter how guilty he felt, he knew of the one rule that had governed his life:

It's not alright to cry.

* * *

A/N: Wow, I'm such a jerk to Coco, everyone else in this fandom made him just seem quiet and unsocial and here I am giving him a horrible and tragic backstory ;-;


	3. Manslaughter, not Murder

**((A/N: This is actually a prequel to the other two chapters! The order is 3, 1, 2.))**

Frustrated, Coco continued across the vast grassy field, toxicology book in hand. He really hated all the overly concerned morons that worked at the I.G.O. Coco dearly hoped that they wouldn't find him where he was, which was making his way to the tree-filled groves, where he had planned to hide from the douchebags that worked at the I.G.O. and find a shady place to finish reading his large, green book.

Although he thought he'd kill two birds with one stone, he only killed one, and agitated the other.

Keeping the thick, green book tucked under his arm, Coco picked a tree at random and scaled it with impressive skill, sitting on one of the lower branches so he wouldn't be seen above the treetops. Letting his legs dangle off the sturdy oak branch, Coco pulled out his book, and flipped to the page where his distasteful purple bookmark sat impatiently, beckoning him to feed his insatiable appetite for knowledge, especially on the various poisons he was sometimes literally drowning in.

"Hey Coco! What are you doing up there?" Coco froze, Shoot! He thought in frustration, They found me here too? Haven't these idiots heard of personal space? Coco sighed heavily, giving in to the irritating nincompoops that followed him everywhere when he wasn't training.

"Coco, you seem mad at something. What is it?" one girl asked, reaching out to put a hand on his shoulder. Coco jerked his shoulder out from under her grasp. He was especially cold to her because she was part of the team of scientists that ruined his life with their faulty antibody machines.

"Coco?" the girl asked in a sweet voice that fooled everyone but Coco.

"Please go away," Coco kept his voice at its usual calm level as he started walking away, thankful for his mild temper and levelheadedness.

"Aww c'mon Coco! Won't you let us just question you a bit?" the girl pestered, leading the group of blockheads and following Coco around the grove of trees.

"No. Please leave me alone, I need space," Coco replied, not even bothering to look over his shoulder.

"Coco please let us do this! This is part of our research!" someone else shouted. Coco didn't trust them and frankly, did not care about their research in the slightest.

"Don't you have inhumane experiments to conduct? Don't you have better people to bother and scare the living daylights out of?" Coco asked, letting irritation take over his voice and rhetorical question. The group of numbskulls froze for a second, taken aback by Coco's aloof attitude.

"Coco! Get over here!" one of them barked, and Coco knew he was in big trouble. Panicked, the raven-haired child turned tail and darted out of the grove of trees.

Panting heavily, the sweatered child reentered the I.G.O. HQ, slipping inside the main doors and into the main lobby, which was currently full of people as per usual.

"Hey Coco, will you please let us question you?"

You've gotta be kidding me! Coco thought bitterly.

"No. Please leave me alone."

"Coco, this will take thirty seconds of your time!"

"Will you please leave me alone for thirty seconds?" Coco snapped, causing a few people to turn and stare in wide-eyed shock. The large crowd and small bit of attention Coco was drawing to himself caused Coco to become uneasy, but all he wanted was for the cluster of jerks to leave him alone.

"Please Coco?"

"Can you please go pester one of my siblings for once? I severely dislike people pawing over me, especially when it's day after day after day," more people turned to watch. Some people began whispering about how the adults sounded more like children begging for candy, and how the twelve-year-old sounded more mature than the entire group.

"Coco! These are strict orders from the top!"

"Please leave me alone."

"Coco! You need to understand that we have to do this!"

"Leave me alone!" like a stretched-out rubber band, Coco was sure to snap, and he began walking hastily towards the elevator, hoping dearly that he wouldn't snap before he reached the elevator. Why don't these pricks understand that their lives are in danger? Coco thought bitterly.

"Coco!"

"SHUT UP!"

And he snapped.

There was an audible gasp from the crowd not because who was normally the most calm and stable of the group of four of Ichiryuu's disciples had snapped, but because of the result. The raven-haired child had spun around on his heels, and one of his arms was straight out, his entire right hand a mirage of purples. But it wasn't the child that surprised them, it was the girl who had ruined Coco's life.

She was lying face-down on the white linoleum floors.

Lifeless.

Coco stared at the girl. Although he deeply despised her, he had just killed her. Her face and neck were the same purple, and there was a puddle of the matching sticky fluid on the ground.

As soon as what he had done registered in Coco's head, he keeled over into the ground and vomited, over and over until he did not have the energy left to stay on his hands and knees. The raven-haired child toppled onto his side, gasping for air as people rushed out to call for help.

And it was not the first person Coco had killed. Immediately the crowd began whispering murder, which made the small child feel worse.

"Murder!" "The kid just murdered that woman!" "She was just pawing over him!" it was too much for Coco to take, and his Gourmet Cells were not thrilled with him keeling over and vomiting. Coco would have panicked, had it not been for I.G.O. paramedics rushing in to examine the problem. Even they were shocked. Words echoed around him. Murder. Murder.

Murder.

As paramedics carefully carried the two people out of the building on stretchers, Coco replayed the words over and over in his head, murder, murder, murder. It was all too much, he was about ready to cry. But he couldn't, for fear of poisoning more people. Instead of replaying those dreadful words over and over in his head, Coco began replaying a simple yet effective message in his head:

It's not alright to cry.


End file.
